1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of surface mount assembly machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of an interchangeable electronic carrier tape feeder adaptable for use in various surface mount assembly machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fully automated surface mount assembly machines are used for surface mount operation in populating printed circuit boards (PCB) and are known in the prior art. They dramatically raises the productivity in component assembly and lower the cost of production. Prior art conventional tape feeders, primarily mechanical, plus a few electronic/electro-mechanical designs, are used in conjunction with these surface mount assembly machines to sequentially index carrier tape containing surface mount electronic components within uniformly spaced cavities and to present these components consistently and repeatedly at a proscribed "dead spot" (aka pick point) for pickup by a vacuum probe and subsequent assembly placement.
A carrier tape packaging assembly with small surface mount components therein is fed through the tape feeder, and the surface mount assembly machine picks up the component at the designated pick point and places the surface mount component on the printed circuit board (PCB). A principal disadvantage with these conventional tape feeders is that they are machine specific and are thus not interchangeable for use with other types of surface mount assembly machines. In other words, virtually every different type and style of conventional tape feeder is manufactured for a particular make and model of surface mount assembly machine and cannot be used with any other type of surface mount assembly machine. This condition creates a proliferation of conventional tape feeders needed in a modern factory where a variety of surface mount assembly machines are often utilized. Typically, the capital investment and floor space requirements for backup tape feeders exceeds the corresponding investment and space requirements for the assembly machine mainframes.
A further disadvantage of conventional tape feeders is their inability to repeatably index and consistently position (at the pick point) extremely small surface mount components, many of which have decreased in size by a power of ten to as small as ten thousandths of an inch per side, and are growing ever smaller.
An additional disadvantage of conventional tape feeders is that they are ill equipped to properly present integrated circuits in the form of singulated bare die sawn from wafers to assembly placement machines. Accurate, repeatable feeding to the pick point, carefully handling of delicate bare die to avoid damage, and especially presenting these bare die in a choice of face up or inverted position to accommodate the mutually popular assembly orientations of chip on board and flip-chip are requirements generally not satisfied by conventional tape feeders, individually, and especially not in totality.
Another disadvantage of conventional tape feeders is that they are dedicated to one specific width of carrier tape and a different feeder must be used for each carrier tape width used. In addition, most conventional tape feeders are dedicated to one and only one component cavity pitch. Thus, when carrier tapes of same width but different component cavity pitches are used, as is often the case, a multiplicity of one width, one pitch feeders, are required.
It is therefore highly desirable to have a very efficient and also very effective design and construction of an interchangeable electronic feeder adaptable to various surface mount assembly machines, thereby eliminating the need to match a particular feeder to a particular surface mount assembly machine. It is also desirable to provide an interchangeable electronic feeder which has both flip-chip and non flip-chip capabilities. It is further desirable to provide an interchangeable electronic feeder which can be used with multiple widths of carrier tapes.